Where he wouldn't (Madame Giry)

[alyna]

"This way," Alyna called to Rose as they went outside. "There's a small shop a few streets down that we won't be interrupted in." She made her way to the silversmith that she had been in with Chante a week earlier.

[Madame Giry]

Rose took a seat once they reached the store. "Umm...you had better go first," Roslin said.

[alyna]

((I wrote this story a while ago, so it sounds more like a book than a person talking.))
Alyna took a deep breath before beginning.
"I was nine. I left the house, as usual, as quickly as I could, my destination being a small locksmith at the end of town. The place had closed down a few months before, yet whenever I passed it I heard the peaceful chink of metal hitting metal. I stepped silently into the building through a previously boarded-up side door. I stood behind the old man working the forge, fascinated at his work.
"For the next seven weeks I spent all of my spare time in that locksmith, watching, never letting him know I was there. Strangely, he always seemed to be working on the same key.
"One Tuesday evening when I came to the building, the side door was boarded up again. It took but a few minutes for me to open it up and slink into the room as usual. No one was there. In fact, nothing was there save a small glittering object on the floor.
"I bent down, scooping it into my hand. It was a small, intricately carved silver key with in emerald set in the place where a name or picture might go. Attached to the key was a piece of paper with neat handwriting on it.
"'To my little spy,' it read, 'to match your eyes. Use it to your heart’s end, for if I told you to use it only in an emergency I know you would not listen anyway. Thanks for the company. Good-bye.'
"He had known I was there the entire time, and never acknowledged it until he was on his deathbed. It was too late to thank him, or ask him any questions. I never even learned his name.
"When I returned home, I put the necklace on a chain and wore it under my clothing every day. It was only four years later when I found out its use.
"I was aimlessly wandering the town, looking for something to do. My feet took me to a large manor owned by a wealthy man and his wife with a very large garden in their front lawn. I crossed it, and went around to the back of the house where they were less likely to catch me on their property. I leaned against an old shed and looked up at the clouds for a few moments. Then I heard a scratching sound from behind the wall I was leaning on. Startled, I stood up.
"'Is anyone in there?' I called, loud enough for someone in the shed to hear, but not someone in the house.
"The scratching continued, and then came a loud 'Meow!'
"I sighed, relieved. It was only a cat, who someone probably locked in there by mistake. I went around to the front of the shed, but the wooden doors were too thick for me to bash. I unconsciously pulled out my silver key, put it through the lock attached to the bar keeping the doors shut, pulled up the bar, and opened one door.
"A striped cat haltingly peeked out through the crack I had opened, then stepped out and ran away, paying no notice to her savior. But that was okay, since I was paying no notice to the cat either; I was staring at my key."
She stopped as the story came to a close. "The necklace," she said, patting her pocket where it still sat, "can open any lock. It is not magic, and I think even the old man is sure how it works. His granddaughters own this shop, and though I didn't know them before the man died, I now often come to talk with them."
((Sorry if you were expecting a love story! XP))

[Madame Giry]

((I wasn't it was very neat))
"Very interesting," Rose said looking around, intreged by the story. "My turn..." Rose said uncormfortabally.
"Well, it isn't anything like yours, there really isn't a story...just a...secret I suppose. I was shocked to find it out myself. Anyways, I had received two notes from the Phantom, in person he handed them to me and told me to give them to Mdm. Giry, so I did. At the Masquerade he left me the new score and told me to announce the leads and watch out for you because...you were snooping or something I suppose.
"Well, I was walking around and went into this one room shortly after the masquerade, before the second practice (two practices a day). I went into this one room with a stain glass window and a mouse scared me and I foolishly fell back and hit my head.
"When I woke up I was...in his real domain, underground. And I was scared to death and then he began to talk to me and tell me his story and all of this stuff. I didn't know why, I was so scared, I didn't know what to say. And then I found out that...well..." Rose paused.
"I'll say it straight, I'm his sister," she said, bitting her lip and down.

[alyna]

Alyna held back a gasp, for she didn't want to embarrass Roslin. She hated herself for thinking that Rose was the Phantom's favorite. Everything seemed to click in her mind except one thing now.
"And your parents," she said quietly, "did they know?"

[Madame Giry]

"Well, they didn't know he came here. They just disowned him and I came along quite some years later," Roslin explained.

[alyna]

Alyna stopped herself from pitying Erik. He didn't deserve it.
"If I would have known..." she didn't know what to say. "What does he do with you, down there? I'm certain you aren't having a family picnic."

[Madame Giry]

"I only go down there when he does something and I don't agree. Though he has tried to convince me to move in down there, mostly because of what happened with you," Roslin rpelied.

[alyna]

"That was his doing. I was, to say, berserk." Alyna stopped and though a moment. "Are you related to Madame Giry, too?"

[Madame Giry]

"No," Roslin said with a laugh, she tought it was almost a joke, but released it wasn't and composed herself again.

[alyna]

"I wonder how those two know each other."

[Madame Giry]

"Well, I'd better not go into that. He'd throw a fit just knowing that I told you this much," Roslin responded.

[alyna]

"How would he know you told me? You won't tell him, and I certainly won't."

[Madame Giry]

"I just don't think it would be right, it would be like telling you a secret that someone had me swear to secrecy, weather they didn't or not," Roslin replied honestly.

[alyna]

Alyna wasn't sure what Roslin meant by this, but decided not to pursue it. "Maybe we should choose a different subject," she suggested. "This one seems to have a lot of dead ends."